Morning Light in Mr. Lee's Garden

Mr. Lee has shared his garden with me for the past few years. Hidden behind a fence it is a remarkable green space with an abundance of vegetables he cares for. Across the alley way you can see his tall bamboo trees growing from pots on a rooftop. This year he has a squash that at least 6 feet tall. He’s always happy when I come by, opening up the garden and then leaving me to work with my camera.

A Small Urban Woodland

A walk in a small urban woodland in Surrey, British Columbia.

Another Forest Tableau

A Circular Path

These images come from an urban nature centre that has, basically, one path. The path goes from the nature centre to the “bog,” which is mostly wetland, with some trees, now being overwhelmed by domestic blueberries. Every year the walls of this pathway, which in many places crowd in around you and stand several feet tall, are generally impenetrable. Here and there, are a few animal trails, very low and very dark. The walls are trimmed back each fall and in the spring new green growth peeks through here and there. Sometimes like a few misplaced hairs, sometimes tendrils that have a menacing look to them. The images are too full of detail, making them as impossible to understand as the walls are to penetrate. These images are part of a set collected at several similar sites over the past five years.

Early Morning, I Visit the Twins

I find the idea of twins something that is foreign to me. But they are everywhere. I walk by these two trees quite often and think about how they started growing at about the same time. I suppose they were planted when the old-growth forest was cut. Very few old-growth trees remain, they are worth many thousands of dollars each. Much more than you would expect. But even these two were planted with an expectation they would sometime be cut and used for something. Sometime, a long time ago, someone started walking between these, and something about that space said “Here is a good place to start a new pathway.” The evidence that we walk through forests and follow pathways tells us we have something inside us that recognizes this is the place to walk, not over there. Here. Not to the left or right. And there is something innate inside us that senses this. Like these trees, we seem to be related.